Don't ask me at the last minute

If you want me to do something which is a regular feature of worship (prayer), don't email at 18:38 on the Saturday night. I probably won't be checking my mail at that time and, even if I were, it's my day off, so I definitely won't be dealing with church emails.

Now, so I don't sound completely unreasonable, if I knew the person who was to do the prayers had taken ill or had a family emergency, I would step in. But, if you haven't bothered to draw up the worship rota for the second quarter of the year yet, that's a different matter. Have you noticed it's mid-April and today will be the second Sunday of the quarter that you have had to get people to lead parts of worship at the last minute. Save yourself a lot of hassle and get those on the rota on your side - issue them in good time.

Would you expect those who were to preach to pull something out of the bag at such short notice? Or do you not see preparation of prayers as an important part of the act of worship? Or, even worse, do you not see prayer as really that important to the act of worship? Well, whatever the reason, I like to prepare. Prayer can speak to people in ways the rest of the service cannot and I like to craft prayers in terms which can include everyone's fears, doubts, concerns, hopes and joys, without being so specific that sections of the congregation feel their prayers have not been offered. Preparation of prayer, IMHO, should be as important as any other part of the act of worship.

So, now I have the dilemma. Do I lead the prayers and feel they aren't up to my high standards, because of the lack of time? Or do I say no and have (yet again) nothing to do in the act of worship and land someone else in it? Mmmmhhh...I might have an idea.